Our latest impact report
Sian Basker, Co-chief executive, Data Orchard
As a social enterprise, our whole reason for being is to achieve impact and over the last couple of years, we’ve worked hard to innovate and test our theory for change. Recently, we’ve been taking stock and looking back at the impact we’ve had.
As we near the end of our current strategy period (2023-26) and lift our sights again to future horizons, it’s been encouraging to reflect on what we’ve achieved and learned. Our Impact Report 2024-2025 gives a snapshot of how we helped organisations get better with data last year.
Here’s a summary:
A year of exploration, celebration, and transition
2024-25 was a year of exploration, celebration, and transition for Data Orchard. We focused on our impact and experimented with new ways of addressing data challenges to improve outcomes for the people and organisations we serve.
Building data skills and capabilities
We built data skills and capabilities in organisations across all sectors, primarily charities and the public sector. During the year, we worked on 44 projects with 36 different clients. Our interactive approach meant we engaged with over 1,700 staff, including senior leaders, back-office teams, and frontline staff. This enabled them to build a shared understanding of data, identify clear priorities, and develop achievable plans for improvement.
Gathering, exploring and analysing data
Where we provided hands-on support, clients saw positive improvements in data quality, collection and management, along with analysis and reporting processes. When we supported organisations with impact measurement, this led to better definition of the data they needed, increased skills, and greater ability to evaluate, improve, and showcase the value of their work.
Empowering leaders
A key area of growth was the roll-out of our pioneering Data for Leaders courses. Alumni from early cohorts told us, a year on, that they felt confident leading better conversations about data and mobilising buy-in. All had successfully driven change and improvement around data in their organisations, confirming our belief that leaders are critical to advancing data maturity.
Scaling up
We amplified our impact by working with many networks and infrastructure organisations to engage leaders at scale. Including Hospice UK, homelessness charities, and those with a geographic focus like 10GM in Greater Manchester and Wales Council for Voluntary Action.
We also achieved global reach through our work with international charities, including Equality Now (fighting for global gender equality), and The International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (a network of international organisations and companies committed to improving the welfare of seafarers).
Supporting governments and the public sector
We supported governments and public sector organisations – some individually, others at scale. For example:
In Scotland, we took a fifth cohort of public sector organisations through our data maturity assessment as part of the Scottish Government’s Data Maturity Programme and were delighted to see the creation of a strategic cross-sector Vision for Public Data in Scotland.
In Wales, we continued delivering our Welsh-language map service Mapio Cymru to the government and other service providers, ensuring place-based data is available in Welsh, and communities are engaged in building and using this important cultural asset.
Celebrating milestones
Our Data Maturity Assessment tool turned five years old! Our unique and growing benchmarking dataset now includes almost 18,000 users from over 1,000 organisations worldwide. Its success in engaging, educating, and motivating organisations to improve with data is now showing long-term rewards. Those that have implemented changes and advanced their data maturity are reaping the value in better decision making, income generation, and better design and delivery of services, leading to greater impact for the people and places they serve.
Championing data for good
In total, we reached an estimated 12,000–15,000 people in 2024-25 through our work promoting the importance and value of data for good. This included facilitating learning and networking among nonprofit data professionals (the Nonprofit Datafolk Club), our resources, case studies, events, and research.
We were delighted to see outcomes in increased connection to professional peers and support, increased motivation to improve with data, inspiration about the possibilities for using data, and increased awareness of good practice. In addition to publishing the 2024 State of the Sector Data Maturity Report, we also released analysis of evolving trends in the nonprofit data jobs market – this aligns with our work to build data skills and literacy across the workforce.
So, what now?
Behind the scenes last year, we responded to increased demand for support in data strategy, data maturity assessment and training by expanding our team of specialist associates. We were thrilled by the response to our recruitment drive and delighted to welcome even more talented and skilled people to the DO crew!
As we enter the final quarter of 2025-26, we’ve already achieved much of what we planned for this financial year. We’ve been focusing on:
Expanding our training programme into new data culture and data literacy courses
Delivering our Data for Leaders courses for more inhouse teams and at scale with organisations in networks
Building our nonprofit data community
Developing ideas around resources on equality and diversity data
Continuing to experiment with AI and exploring what it means for our products, services, clients, and the nonprofit sector as a whole.
Find out more
Find out more about the impact Data Orchard made in 2024-25 by reading our full impact report.